the artist and the halfa
by fairytalelights
Summary: Rachel Elizabeth Dare is in Amity Park for the summer, after having agreed to help out Nico with some ghost problems that's causing way too much paperwork. What happens when she's staying with the Fentons? And what on earth will Danny do with this pretty, redheaded artist in his house, who seems to know more than she should? Secrets may not always stay safe when two worlds collide.
1. hello, amity park

**Totally an impulsive piece of work here. This is the result of finally reading the Blood of Olympus (yes, there are spoilers. kind of.) and re-discovering one of my old favourite cartoon shows on YouTube. **

**So...have fun reading, I guess?**

**note: Phantom Planet never happened. Jazz is away at college. Danny is sixteen. Rachel is sixteen too. YAY!**

**(yes I know I have like a million and one things to update and many fluffy oneshots to write but...oh, well. heh.)**

* * *

><p>"Rachel, I need help."<p>

Rachel Elizabeth Dare looked at the son of Hades, sitting across her. She blinked.

"Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Nico said, irritably. "It's just that – this is something I would rather pass on to someone I trust. And with the demigods all having just gone through the Giant War – I mean, I know you were there too, but you didn't go through the same things as them. I thought you could help."

Rachel's face softened. She liked the son of Hades, even though she hardly interacted with him. He wasn't a bad kid, if a little moody. But he'd been getting better. She was seeing him with Will Solace all the time now, after her return from Camp Jupiter, where she'd been trying to figure out the Sibylline Books that Ella had memorised.

"What do you need?" she asked.

Nico shifted. "My dad has lots of problems with this town," he admitted. "It's called Amity Park, and it's – "

"The most haunted town in America!" Rachel snapped her fingers, and a smile was lighting up her face.

"You know it?"

"Know it? My mum's got some sister or cousin or friend or something staying there! Um, she doesn't like to talk much about her, but apparently her name's Maddie Fenton and she's a ghost hunter."

"Yeah, well," Nico grumbled. "All the ghosts there are causing serious backlog. _So _much paperwork. I'm telling you, it's no fun dealing with all that paperwork."

"So…what is it you want me to do, exactly?"

"You're mortal," said Nico, bluntly. "And I know you've got nothing to do the whole summer except work on weird art projects and hang around Camp Half-Blood. Demigods would attract the ghosts and monsters in Amity Park just as strongly, so it's, you know, preferable not to send them. Plus, with all your money, I thought you could go spend a month there or something. Help me check out the ghosts and stuff."

Rachel looked at him.

"Okay," he admitted. "I know the voice of Delphi is still extinguished, and I know it's on your mind, so I thought it might be a distraction of sorts. And I would go to Reyna to do this, if I could, but she's so absorbed in her duties as praetor, and did you know – she got a boyfriend? She met him on some quest in Jump City. One of the Teen Titans. So, you know, they need to spend time together, and all that. And besides, I trust you. And I thought that it would be good for you to get some time away from – " Nico hesitated. "From everything."

Rachel felt a rush of affection for the young teenager sitting in front of her. People could say what they liked about Nico (even though hardly anyone said anything bad about him anymore), but she really, truly liked the kid. He – he understood.

"What would be my cover?" she asked. "I can't just go in there for, like, no reason at all, can I?"

He looked up at her, and slowly smiled. "You're okay with this?"

"Are you kidding me? A summer free from my parents, and dealing with Chiron and the Stoll brothers and everything? I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Camp Half-Blood and the people, and Camp Jupiter's great too, but it'll be nice to get away for a while, you know?"

There was no doubt about it, he was definitely smiling.

"There's some huge art exhibition going on in Amity Park this summer," he said. "Something like 'for teens, by teens'? I thought that would be okay. You can go in, and help, and stuff."

"Sounds fantastic," said Rachel. "I'll give Aunt Maddie a call."

"Lucky you've got relatives there."

"Definitely," agreed Rachel. "Not like it would be a problem to find somewhere to stay, but it's always more fun to stay with relatives. Especially if they're ghost hunters. What do you need me to do for your ghost issue, anyway?"

Nico shrugged. "Just keep an eye out. Keep track of the ghosts you run into, how they get in and out, and stuff like that. I'll deal with the rest."

"Works for me," said Rachel. "Oh, wow. Going to the most haunted town in the whole of America? This is gonna be great."

Nico smiled at her, a small smile.

"Thanks, Rachel."

* * *

><p>"Rachel? Who's Rachel?"<p>

"Oh, Danny." Maddie shook her head. "I told you before, honey! She's one of my old friend's daughters!"

"Since when do we have an old family friend called the Dares?" Danny demanded, standing in the kitchen with his arms crossed.

At that, Maddie's face dropped slightly.

"Well, her mother and I fell out years ago," she admitted. "We didn't agree on each other's marriages, you see. But we made it up in the end. We just don't talk very much. But Rachel's a lovely girl, I'm sure. She's coming to Amity Park for the art exhibition your school's having this year over the summer! She's supposed to be an artist."

"And I'm sure she's going to love learning all about the ghosts and everything I'm going to teach her!" Jack declared.

"She did express an interest in the ghosts here," said Maddie.

"Oh, man," said Danny. "The poor girl."

Thankfully, his parents didn't hear him.

* * *

><p>Danny was <em>not <em>happy at having some random, unknown girl coming over for the summer. It was bad enough trying to get out of the house half the time with his parents around – it hadn't gotten much easier with Jazz going to college, and no one to cover for him – but with some random girl from New York? Here? In his house?

This was going to be great.

At least his parents hadn't made him clean up his room, and she'd be taking Jazz's empty room instead.

And then the doorbell rang.

"Danny! She's here!"

Grumbling to himself, Danny made his way down the stairs.

* * *

><p>It hadn't taken long to convince her parents to let her go to Amity Park. Her father had simply grunted his agreement, and her mother hadn't said anything.<p>

She had, however, pulled Rachel aside just before she left.

"Let me know how Maddie is doing," she told her daughter. "I haven't – it feels like I haven't spoken to her in years."

There was something in her mother's eyes that made Rachel say, simply, "Okay."

And here she was.

She waved to Jules-Albert as he drove away. She was perfectly capable of driving herself, but Nico had offered the French zombie to chauffeur her, and she appreciated the gesture.

She turned back around and gazed up at the massive sign that read FENTON WORKS, as she waited for someone to come to the door. She'd tossed some of her things inside a paint-splatted suitcase, and idly she began poking a hole in her jeans as she waited.

And then the door slammed open.

"You must be Rachel!"

She was aware of a large, massive man in an orange jumpsuit, grinning at her and shaking her hand up and down excitedly like a little kid.

"If you're here to learn about ghosts," he said, "you've come to the right place!"

"Oh, Jack, dear!"

And now another figure appeared; a slim woman, in a different-coloured jumpsuit, the hood pulled back to reveal short brown hair and gentle purple eyes that held warmth. "I'm Maddie, dear."

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," she said. "Thanks so much for letting me stay with you, you know, I heard about this exhibition and it sounded great for me to take part in over the summer, the city gets kind of boring, you know, and plus I heard this was the most haunted town in the US so I thought it'd be really cool – "

"And it'll be even cooler once you know how to kill all the ghosts here! Our inventions will show you the best way to rip a ghost apart molecule by molecule and send it right back into – "

"Jack," said Maddie. "Let the girl come in."

"Right you are, Maddie!"

Rachel bounced over the doorstep and into the house. Despite its extreme exterior, it looked rather normal on the inside.

And then there was a clattering on the stairs, and Rachel's head shot up as a skinny, black-haired boy with bright blue eyes tumbled down onto the ground in front of her.

"Hey, are you okay?" she asked, instantly.

"Oh, yeah, I'm good, I'm good," the boy said, scrambling to his feet and grinning at her. "Sorry about that. I'm a total klutz."

"Think I could tell," Rachel laughed. She held out a hand. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

"That's a mouthful," the boy said, and took her hand. "I'm Danny Fenton."


	2. going to casper high

**Hey, just a quick note. I honestly sort of came up with Rachel's cover as the art exhibition thing on the spot. I honestly have no idea how an art exhibition works, so...don't kill me?**

**(and, by the way, thank you to Guest and morethanarepairboy for their reviews!) **

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><p>Rachel liked Danny.<p>

He reminded her a lot of Percy – his easygoing, laidback nature, his friendly grin, his complete idiocy and thickheadedness. It had only been a day, but after spending the day with him, Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger, it had been enough.

Tucker was hilarious, and Sam was _fantastic_. The goth girl had obviously had some reservations about her, but it was easy to talk to her, and Sam had seemed to relax the more Rachel had blabbered on endlessly. (Sam actually reminded Rachel vaguely of Annabeth, when Rachel had first met her with Percy in Times Square. She had also seemed to brighten up considerably after Rachel had told her about her no-dating rule - she was still the Oracle, after all, even if she was getting nothing from the spirit of Delphi.) Danny had complained a lot – about the world, about his parents, about the stupid ghosts that infested the town, about their dismal popularity status.

Rachel had scoffed, at that last one. Sam had scoffed along with her.

And she had also met – or rather, seen – Paulina. The apparently oh-so-flawless girl that Danny and Tucker both hadn't been able to take their eyes off. She reminded Rachel of one of the Aphrodite girls, very much like Drew Tanaka and her gang of cronies, before Piper had come along and radically changed the way things were run in the Aphrodite cabin.

And today, she was heading to Casper High with Danny.

"You got everything with you, Rachel?" asked Maddie, once Rachel had clattered her way downstairs, a bright blue hairbrush sticking out of her pocket.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Everything I need. Besides, I'm just going to be doing the art exhibition stuff, and then, you know, I'll see how it goes on tomorrow and everything, so it'll be fine."

"Do you want some breakfast, Rachel?" Jack boomed out.

"No," a voice whispered into her ear, and Danny appeared next to her, hair ruffled, shadows under his eyes. He sent her a frantic glance: "Say no."

"It's okay," said Rachel, grinning. "Not hungry."

"Good choice," Danny muttered.

* * *

><p>"You okay?" Rachel asked him, as she followed him along the streets. "You look exhausted."<p>

Danny shrugged, and flashed her a tired grin. "Was trying to finish up my homework?"

Rachel frowned. She knew that tone. It was the same kind of tone that Percy used when he was trying to hide something from her, like that summer he'd turned sixteen, the few times she'd asked him about camp and he'd tried to hide the truth from her as much as possible and come up with some lousy excuse for a truth. (Not like she'd asked him very often – after all, he'd mainly spent time with her because he had to get _away_ from camp. She could respect that.)

But there was definitely no doubt about it. Danny was hiding something. What he said had _totally _been an excuse.

She tried to dismiss it. It was probably nothing. Maybe he'd just snuck out to see Sam and Tucker, or something. But there was something in the way he shifted his feet nervously as he walked, and the way his eyes flickered to her and to the front again, that reminded her, again, of Percy, and the other demigods around camp.

There was definitely something more.

* * *

><p>"And who are <em>you<em>?"

Rachel blinked at the old, bald teacher standing in front of her, a clipboard over his pot belly. He was looking at her with something that looked very much like contempt. Perhaps it was something to do with her ratty shirt, or her jeans that were covered with paint and marker drawings, which included a rather violent drawing of Tyson.

"Um, Mr Lancer, this is Rachel," said Danny, hurriedly. "She's supposed to be helping out with the art exhibition, or something. Like that."

"Really." Mr Lancer raised his eyebrows.

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," Rachel said. "I think I emailed you – "

"Ah! Ms Dare!" Lancer's face brightened up considerably as the name registered in his head, and for the moment he could ignore her rather disturbing outfit. "From Clarion Academy, yes?"

Rachel squirmed uncomfortably. "Yes."

"I've heard wonderful things about you and your artwork – "

"Really?" said Rachel. "Because my art teachers think I'm nuts."

"Nonetheless, your artwork seems to be a huge topic and very well regarded," said Lancer. "We've set aside the gym for the exhibition – "

"Wait," said Danny. "Does that mean there's no gym class?"

"Yes, Mr Fenton," sighed Lancer, "it does."

"_All right_!"

* * *

><p>When Danny wandered into the gym after school – it had been a wonderfully ghost-free day, with only some stupid glowing green frog halfway during lunch, which had been easily tackled – with Tucker and Sam, it was to find Rachel having taken over the entire gym.<p>

Boxes lay scattered on the ground, sculptures and paintings and drawings carefully being placed up around the gym. Students were racing from one project to the next – he could see two kids putting up a painting on the wall, another pair setting up a sculpture, another three trying to unroll and put up a drawing – and in the middle of it was Rachel, directing, her hair in a tangled mess, pawing through an open box and lifting up strange-looking ornaments.

"Well," said Sam, "she looks like she's completely in her element."

"No, that goes over _there_! Oh, jeez, no, you've got to put that up carefully, this way – _hey! You in the green shirt! _What do you think you're doing? Don't you dare drop that! Hey, wow, this is amazing, this is so cool – hey, where do you think this should go? No, I meant that! Here? I was planning on putting _that _over here, though – "

"She doesn't stop talking, does she?" Tucker asked.

"Nope," said Danny, remembering dinner the previous night. Jack had talked endlessly about ghosts – but once Maddie had asked Rachel about her artwork, and about New York, there had been no stopping her. She was like a monster truck – barrelling everything down in her way. Danny had probably heard more about a guy called Percy Jackson and a girl called Annabeth Chase and yet another guy called Grover Underwood more than he'd ever wanted to.

"Hey! Are you here to help?"

Rachel had popped up in front of them, dragging her blue plastic hairbrush through her frizzy hair, trying to get it into a manageable shape. She beamed at them.

"Actually," said Sam, hurriedly, taking in the gym around her, "I've got, like, _loads _of stuff to do, you know. Gotta go – sorry, Rachel!"

She beat a hasty retreat, leaving the two boys standing in front of the girl from New York.

"Uh, yeah, me too," said Tucker, sending Danny a look that read _sorry, man, you're on your own. _"Lots of techno-geek stuff to do, you know? Bye!"

He was out of the gym in seconds.

Danny swallowed and turned to Rachel, who was now frowning, and had stuffed her hairbrush back into her jeans pocket. She turned to look at him pleadingly.

_Well_, he thought, _there haven't been any ghost attacks. And Sam and Tucker can call if anything happens._

"I guess I'm here to stay," he grinned at her, sheepishly.

A smile split across her face. "Fantastic!"

* * *

><p>"Hey, FEN-TINA!"<p>

Danny winced, and raised his head from the box he'd been looking through, sorting through tiny sculpture-stuff that looked almost exactly the same to him. Next to him, Rachel raised her head as well, from a stack of papers she'd been sorting through. Danny could see a familiar, bulky blond hair make his way through the gym, pushing aside a skinny, geeky-looking boy who had accidentally stepped in his path.

"Oh, shit," he muttered.

Rachel scowled as she saw the poor geek get tossed to the side.

Dash Baxter came to a stop in front of the raven-haired boy, a frown on his face. "Hey, Fen-turd, you think – "

And then he caught sight of the redhead getting to her feet next to Danny.

His eyes widened. "Whoa."

Almost instantly, his face smoothened out, a large smile replacing his scowl. "And who are _you_?" he asked her. "I don't think I'd forget such a beautiful face."

Danny found himself scowling as Dash smiled at Rachel. Stupid Dash Baxter –

Rachel raised her eyebrows at him.

"Are you trying to flirt with me?" she asked, bluntly.

"Will you tell me your name?" Dash drawled, now attempting to show off his arm muscles. Danny had to fight back the snarky sentences rising up in his throat. He did _not _want to get beaten up into a pulp or stuffed into a locker, not when Dash was now ignoring him completely. And _especially _not in front of Rachel.

"Rachel," she said. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare." She turned to Danny. "Who is this joker?"

Dash blinked at her, as if he wasn't really sure what he was seeing, and hearing. Danny wasn't sure himself, either.

"Um," Danny said. "This is Dash Baxter. Most popular guy at Casper High."

"That's right," said Dash, drawing himself up. "I am." He grinned at Rachel again.

"Are you here to help?" she asked.

Dash blinked again. "Huh?"

"The art exhibition," said Rachel. "You are, right? I mean, that's why you're here, isn't it? To help with the exhibition? Because we really need loads of help, and you definitely can help with the heavy stuff – "

"I can do that!" Dash said. "I can totally lift up all the heavy stuff. You wanna see me carry them?"

"No, not really," said Rachel. "I just need you to do it. And listen to Danny, because he's, like, helping me out here."

Dash turned to glare at Danny, who grinned at him and shrugged. He could see the jock fighting the temptation to smash him into a pulp. It reminded him of the time Dash had been forced to invite Danny to his party, because of Jazz.

"Okay," he grunted. "I'll listen to Fen-turd."

* * *

><p>"That guy's a total jerk, isn't he?"<p>

Rachel was watching Dash lift up a large, heavy sculpture.

Danny blinked at her. "Yeah. Yeah, he is, actually. His favourite hobby is probably stuffing me into a locker and beating me up, or something. Or maybe beating me up, and then stuffing me into a locker. It depends on his mood."

Rachel shook her head, a disgusted expression twisting her face. "I _hate_ idiots like that."

"Well, you're going to have fun chasing him off," said Danny. "Last time, he was interested in my sister, Jazz. He was even willing to invite me to his super-popular party to get on her good side."

"What d'you mean, _even willing_?"

Danny shrugged, diving his head back down into the box and lifting up another tiny sculpture thingamabob. "You know. Sam, and Tucker, and me. We're not exactly popular in Casper High. We're, like, considered the complete losers."

"So what?"

He tore his eyes away from the thingamabob to look at Rachel, who was looking at him with her bright green eyes, her legs crossed, the papers she'd been looking through spread on the floor in front of her.

For a moment, he thought that she was joking, but she was looking at him very seriously.

"So what?" she repeated. "Whether you're popular or considered a loser? I mean, you've got Tucker and Sam, right?"

"Yeah." Danny smiled. "Yeah, they're amazing."

"See?" Rachel shrugged. "You've got a family who loves you – " Danny thought he heard her voice catch slightly, as if family was a touchy subject for her " – and amazing friends who are always by your side." She swallowed, slightly. "You're a lucky kid, Danny."

Danny took a long look at this strange, frizzy-haired girl, who was now rummaging through the papers again. He thought of his sleepless nights, his ridiculous parents, his many injuries and enemies he'd gained.

"Lucky," he said. "Maybe."

* * *

><p>"I saw a ghost today," Rachel said, conversationally, the way someone would say something like <em>I went to the mall today<em>. Danny frowned. For a girl who had come to Amity Park for the first time, she seemed awfully at ease with the fact that there were ghosts around.

"Yeah?" Danny asked. "Which one?"

"I was kind of hoping you could tell me that," Rachel admitted. She thought of Nico, sitting across her, asking her for help. She thought of the ghost she'd seen sailing through the hallways earlier that day, chasing some glowing green frog who'd been wrecking the school. He'd been a blur as he whizzed past her, but she could remember some details clearly enough. "He had these really bright green eyes, and white hair, and he was wearing this black-and-white jumpsuit thing – "

"Danny Phantom," said Danny.

She blinked. "Danny – Danny _Phantom_?" She stared at him. "Isn't that a lot like your name?"

He chuckled. "Well, yeah, it is, actually. He's the ghost boy, kind of a regular hero around here."

"But I read something about him, somewhere," said Rachel. "Didn't they think he was a bad guy?"

Danny frowned, his face darknening. "Well, yeah. He's been framed a lot of times for stuff he didn't do, because the other ghosts are usually out to get them, 'cause he's always stopping their plans for world domination and all that."

Rachel could hear the passion, the ferocity in his voice.

"You sound like you know him well," she told him.

At that, his face changed abruptly, and he let out a nervous laugh: "Hey, when your parents are ghost hunters and you spend your whole life living in this town, you get to know a thing or two."

Rachel turned her face away, but there was a frown on her face. She knew it, clear as day, that Danny was _definitely _hiding something. He was really very bad at keeping a secret. And this secret had something to do with Danny Phantom – a ghost that Nico had asked her to watch out for especially, going into an endless rant about the amount of paperwork the ghost boy had caused him.

But if this was Danny's secret, did she really have to pry? Yeah, she was curious, of course it was. She'd grown even more curious about the world since the voice of the spirit of Delphi had abruptly shut down on her. But she liked Danny, even after only a day of knowing him. She didn't want to come bursting in on his secret.

Idly, she wondered if she should have trusted Danny with that box of tiny sculptures. He _had _mentioned that he was a complete klutz –

All at once, the box next to her began glowing brightly, and then began to float.

Rachel let out a yelp and scrambled backwards.

All around the gym, boxes full of artwork were glowing, flying up into the air, spinning round and round and round.

Next to her, Danny let out a sigh, and his face held an annoyed expression.

"I'll be right back," he said to Rachel, who whipped her head around as the scrawny boy stumbled up onto his feet and raced behind a particularly large canvas painting.

Where was he _going_?

But more importantly, what was happening to the boxes? The boxes that held so much precious artwork? The boxes that she'd spent so much time arranging around, moving here and there, and sorting through?

Her answer came soon enough.

"BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST!"


	3. meeting the box ghost

**Hey! I wasn't planning on updating this story for the next few days, but I finished this chapter this morning and I thought I might as well upload this. **

**Oh yeah, and by the way, I haven't watched Danny Phantom in a really long time. I'm, like, catching up right now by finding random episodes on YouTube. So if I make any mistakes, or slip-ups, or whatever, forgiveness would be greatly appreciated. **

**Thank you to Matt, IWasNeverReal, and Son of Zeus0001 for their reviews.**

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><p>Stupid Box Ghost.<p>

Danny could see the other students drop what they were holding and start running around the gym, screaming their heads off. Majority of them started scrambling for the doors, and were soon followed by the rest of the students. He, on the other hand, dropped behind the massive sculpture Dash had been lugging and promptly went ghost.

And that was when, over the screaming, he heard a loud voice yell:

"WHAT ARE YOU _DOING_?"

Danny rose into the air, and blinked at the scene before him.

Rachel was standing directly in front of the Box Ghost, her face furious, her hands on her hips. The blue plastic hairbrush was still sticking out of her pocket. It was as if he were an annoying student who'd been messing up her exhibition. It was like she didn't even notice the students running out of the gym as fast as they could.

The Box Ghost blinked at her, and then raised his arms and continued: "BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST! FEAR – "

"Hey, I was asking you a _question_!"

There was no doubt about it. Rachel looked furious. And what was more, she didn't look even remotely scared of the Box Ghost floating just inches away from her face. She just looked very, very pissed.

The Box Ghost blinked at her, as if not really very sure of what he was seeing and hearing. While he'd been ridiculed more than once, often not taken as a threat, he'd never faced down an angry redhead before. Especially not an angry redhead he'd never seen before.

Danny rose into the air above the both of them, unnoticed by the fleeing, screaming students, the furious redhead, and the astonished Box Ghost.

"Hey, do you have hearing problems or something?" Rachel demanded. "What do you think you're doing? Do you know how much artwork there is in those boxes you just decided to start flying around the room? Do you know that I spent the _entire day _sorting through all those boxes, and figuring out what to put where, and arranging them, and that entire day has just been wasted BECAUSE YOU DECIDED TO HAVE SOME FUN WITH ALL THE CARDBOARD BOXES IN THE GYM?"

The Box Ghost blinked, nervously, and moved backwards, and he swallowed and said: "Your loud voice and puny frame does nothing to – "

"Hey, don't you back away! And don't interrupt me! Do you know how much effort people have put into the artworks that they've sent here? Do you? And some of them are really fragile! You could've broken some of them! Plus, all your tossing about the boxes like that, it'll totally ruin the artwork, you know? Oh, gods, are you that inconsiderate? People have put in time and effort into this stuff! What is _wrong _with you?"

She was glaring at him furiously, and Danny, high above them, could only look on in shock and what was slowly feeling like amusement. Her words really were like a monster truck, slamming into you, an endless volley of words that screamed into your ears.

"Don't just float there like some moron!" Rachel snapped. "Are you going to put those boxes back, or what? Are you really that inconsiderate? First you get all my volunteers to run out of the gym so it is now practically empty, and you're just floating there with all the boxes containing precious artwork flying around you? _Can you get them to stop flying? _You could ruin them!"

Almost abruptly, the boxes stopped spinning around the gym.

"Now are you going to put them all back where they belong or not?" Rachel demanded. "You can, can't you? What are you going to do with so many boxes, anyway? Are you going to help me or not?"

The Box Ghost just stared at her in complete disbelief.

High up above, so did Danny.

* * *

><p>Rachel had had no idea where that sudden rush of anger had come from.<p>

And, truth be told, her courage in facing down that stupid, annoying ghost. She supposed she'd grown up a lot from the days when she'd led Percy around in the Labyrinth and had nearly gotten him killed. Having been around during both the Titan and the Giant War, even though she hadn't even been on the front lines, since she wasn't even a fighter - she supposed that did a lot for your courage and recklessness.

But she couldn't _believe _this ghost. Getting all the boxes up and flying around, messing up her whole day's work, nearly ruining the work of who-knew-how many students who'd put in so much effort into their work?

"No, that goes _there_!" she yelled, as the Box Ghost sent another box going where it wasn't supposed to go.

He nodded, meekly, hardly saying a word, and scurried off to where the box was meant to be.

"You know, I've never seen him like this before. You must've really scared him."

Rachel's head whipped around, and she found herself face to face with a boy floating in the air before her, his hair a bright, snowy white, his eyes shining green, in a black-and-white jumpsuit with some sort of symbol on it.

She recognised him immediately.

"Danny Phantom," she said.

He grinned at her, a grin that looked startlingly familiar. "Yep, that's me. You must be new around here. I've never seen you before."

Rachel wasn't receiving any _I want to kill you _or _I plan to take over the world with this art exhibition and its collection of boxes _vibe from him, so she said, "I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

"I'd tell you my name, but you already know it," said Danny Phantom, still grinning. His grin eerily reminded her of someone else. And he was so young – he looked like he was her age. Which meant he'd had to be around sixteen or something when he died. Rachel felt something ache in her heart, slightly, at the thought of that. "You need any help around here?"

Rachel glanced around at the abandoned gym. Even Dash Baxter had fled the scene.

"Well," she said, "some help would be great."

* * *

><p>Yes, Rachel was acting surprisingly normal for a girl on her second day in Amity Park.<p>

Danny gently dropped a large box of drawings near a corner of the gym – the last box and floated over back to where Rachel and the Box Ghost were. They seemed to be…talking.

Almost immediately, Danny went invisible and drifted over to where they were. Rachel was different, or knew something more – he knew she did. There was no way she could act so normally around ghosts if she didn't, or if she hadn't run into them before. And maybe he could find out what it was she knew.

He drifted nearer.

"So," Rachel was saying, "you're the Box Ghost. And you control boxes."

The Box Ghost nodded.

"And where did you come from, exactly?"

Danny frowned. Was this an interrogation? What exactly was Rachel after?

"The Ghost Zone," the Box Ghost said.

Rachel's eyebrows went up, and she fished out a permanent marker and scribbled on her hand.

"I wonder if Nico knows about this," she murmured to herself.

Almost instantly, the Box Ghost paled. "Ni-Nico?"

Danny tilted his head. He'd never heard of a _Nico _before. But the name apparently seemed to mean something to the Box Ghost, whom he'd always considered the least knowledgeable of all the ghosts around. Who on earth was _Nico_?

"Nico di Angelo," Rachel confirmed.

He stared at her for a long moment.

And then –

"I must flee! I MUST FLEE! I MUST RETURN TO THE GHOST ZONE!"

* * *

><p>"Have you been here the whole time that ghost was in here?" Danny asked as he re-entered the gym. Rachel looked up in surprise. She was wiping her hands on her jeans, and standing in the middle of the gym, looking around.<p>

"Yeah. Yeah, I was. Where were you? I didn't expect everyone to start screaming like that. And wouldn't you have some sort of ghostly weapons? I imagined your dad would force them on you, especially since they're ghost hunters."

Danny chuckled, nervously, and almost at once Rachel was on her guard. Danny was hiding something. She knew he was.

"Not really," he admitted. "I mean, ghosts? Man, they're creepy. No ghosts for me. Plus, you'll never know what they'll do to you, you know, and some of those ghosts are really dangerous – "

He sent her a sheepish look, and almost at once Rachel revised her impression of him. She had seen that he could act the complete idiot. The emphasis now was on the word '_act_'. He definitely knew more than he was letting on. There was something he was hiding. Something to do with ghosts.

"So, uh," Danny said, hurriedly. "Are you heading home?"

Rachel nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm done for today."

"Fantastic, I'll walk back with you – "

Just then, what looked like a silvery blue mist floated out of Danny's mouth. He winced.

"Actually," he stammered, "I think I have to – I have to use the bathroom! And, uh, it'll take me a while! You, uh, remember the way home, right? I'll see you back at the house!"

And he was scrambling out of the door in an instant, Rachel staring after him.

* * *

><p>"I'm telling you guys, there's something off about Rachel."<p>

Night was falling as Danny made his way back home, sliding the Fenton Thermos back into his bag, Sam and Tucker on either side of him. He was frowning.

"I'm not getting a bad vibe from her," said Sam. "Are you guys?"

Tucker shook his head. Danny said, "That's the strangest thing. I mean, there is definitely something strange about her. You should've seen the way she tackled the Box Ghost – it wasn't like she was afraid of him at all."

"Dude," said Tucker, "no one's afraid of him."

"I mean, we aren't. But to newcomers, the whole fact that ghosts are real are enough to send them into hysterics. But Rachel was acting completely normal. Like she'd seen worse things than ghosts. And when I went up to her, as Danny _Phantom_, she didn't freak out at all! She just looked at me like she was studying me or something."

"She could be a ghost hunter," said Sam, but the way her face was, her eyebrows furrowed together, Danny knew that she had a hard time believing it herself.

"Then why didn't she catch the Box Ghost and Danny?" asked Tucker. "I mean, you said all she did was talk, right?"

Danny blinked. "She was asking the Box Ghost about the Ghost Zone. If she really is a ghost hunter, she might be planning something really big!"

The three of them exchanged glances, and something twisted in Danny's chest. He liked Rachel. He really did. But if she was a ghost hunter, that meant really bad news. But if she was a ghost hunter, why wouldn't she ask Maddie and Jack for help?

He could answer that question almost immediately. Lots of ghost hunters were competitive. Maybe Rachel was the same. Maybe the art exhibition was just a cover for her ghost-hunting activities. Maybe she just wanted to find out what his parents had in their lab, and make use of what she could, or find out more about the Ghost Zone and the ghosts that frequented Amity Park.

He thought of the name she had mentioned. _Nico di Angelo_.

"Tuck," he said, "d'you think you could see what you can find on this name for me? When Rachel mentioned it, the Box Ghost just totally freaked out."

"Am I or am I not a techno-geek? What's the name?"

"Nico di Angelo."

"Sounds Italian," commented Tucker, typing it into one of his bazillion gadgets in his hands. "I'll get back to you when I'm done searching."

Danny sighed as he continued scuffing his feet along the pavement.

"Great," Danny said. "A pretty girl staying at my house, and she _has _to be a ghost hunter."

* * *

><p>Rachel was sitting in the room that was really Jazz's room, trying to decide what she should do.<p>

If Danny's secret had something to do with ghosts, then she _should _be trying to find out what it was. After all, that was the whole reason she was here. For Nico, and for the ghost problem.

But he'd been nothing but nice to her the whole time she was here. She had no right to go prying about his secrets.

Rachel groaned.

"Rachel?"

At the voice, she nearly let out a yelp as she spun around. There, before her, shimmering faintly through the light that struck the prism she'd left on the table, was Nico, with Percy right behind him.

"You have got to stop doing that," she said. "It's creepy, okay? And totally uncalled for. You could've said hi."

"I said your name," said Nico. "How's your second day at Amity Park?"

Rachel shrugged. "Okay. The art exhibition is great." Then she sent a smile at Nico. "You knew there was that ancient mythology theme for it, didn't you?"

It had been one of the first things that old Lancer guy had told her, after bringing her to the gym. Rachel could just imagine the piles of paintings and works and sculptures that she was going to be looking through. If anything, this job was going to be amusing, looking at paintings and sculptures of the gods and the myths and comparing them to their actual selves.

He smiled at her innocently. "Possibly." But then his face turned serious. "Have you met any ghosts?"

"I still can't believe this," said Percy. "You let Rachel go to a town infested with ghosts. I wanna go to the town full of ghosts!"

"Percy," said Nico. "We discussed this. Besides, Annabeth would kill me. And you need to work on improving your grades."

"I did meet ghosts," said Rachel. "Two, actually. One is called the Box Ghost. He said that they come from some place called the Ghost Zone?" She looked at Nico curiously.

He muttered something in Italian and shook his head. "It sounds vaguely familiar," he told her, "but I'll need to check it out. My father's Underworld has layers and layers, you know that. Who was the second ghost you met?"

"This guy called Danny Phantom – "

"_Danny Phantom_?" Nico demanded. "Zeus knows how much paperwork that guy has given me! Do you know how many hours I've spent listening to Father whine about all that paperwork he has to go through and all the trouble that ghost has caused him? Every other week, it's Danny Phantom this and Danny Phantom that!"

"He seemed nice," said Rachel.

Nico snorted. "Oh, yeah, of course he does. But the amount of paperwork! He's a hero, I know, but I swear, he clogs up everything, all the processes, half the time. Even I'm stuck sorting through all those papers, and all the messes he's involved with – and I don't even _do _the paperwork half the time!"

Rachel couldn't help it – she laughed. "Okay, okay. I'll try and find out more about him."

"You do that," Nico muttered.

"OH DANNY! RACHEL!"

Rachel turned her head. "That has to be Maddie," she said. "I'd better go."

"IM us soon!" said Percy. "And go have some fun. Heck, you're in a town full of ghosts! Make sure you take some pictures!"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "I paint, Percy. I don't take pictures."

He waved a hand dismissively. "Paint, then. Whatever."

"Bye."

"See ya."

* * *

><p>"Danny, would you be a dear and go tell Rachel that dinner'll be in a while? We seem to have encountered some problems."<p>

Maddie beamed at him over the gigantic green glob that was now trying to force its way out of the fridge. Danny winced.

"Okay."

He tramped up the stairs, and was about to knock on the bedroom door when he heard a voice that was most definitely _not _Rachel's: " – _who was the second ghost you met?"_

Almost instantly, Danny froze.

"_This guy called Danny Phantom –_ " That was Rachel's voice, definitely.

"_Danny Phantom_?" A voice demanded. A boy's voice, for sure. _"Zeus knows how much paperwork that guy has given me! Do you know how many hours I've spent listening to Father whine about all that paperwork he has to go through and all the trouble that ghost has caused him? Every other week, it's Danny Phantom this and Danny Phantom that!" _

Danny felt himself going cold all over. If he'd had doubts about whether Rachel was a ghost hunter or not, they were gone now. Who else would be dealing with paperwork about his ghostly half?

"_He seemed nice,"_ said Rachel.

The same voice replied. _"Oh, yeah, of course he does. But the amount of paperwork! He's a hero, I know, but I swear, he clogs up everything, all the processes, half the time. Even I'm stuck sorting through all those papers, and all the messes he's involved with – and I don't even do the paperwork half the time!"_

A girl's laugh. "_Okay, okay. I'll try and find out more about him_."

"_You do that,"_ the voice muttered.

"OH DANNY! RACHEL!"

"_That has to be Maddie. I'd better go."_

"_IM us soon!"_ said another voice, an unfamiliar one. _"And go have some fun. Heck, you're in a town full of ghosts! Make sure you take some pictures!"_

"_I paint, Percy. I don't take pictures_."

"_Paint, then. Whatever." _

"_Bye."_

"_See ya." _

Danny knocked on the door then, hammering loudly, and it opened to reveal Rachel grinning brightly at him.

"Sorry," she said, apologetically. "Some friends back home called up to see how I was doing."

"You missing home already?" Danny asked, as they walked across the landing.

"Yeah," she admitted. "But I think I'm going to like Amity Park."

She smiled at him, but something felt heavy in Danny's chest. How on earth could Rachel be a ghost hunter? She was so honest, so blunt, so _real_. She didn't appreciate conformity, but she didn't make it a point to stand out, either. There was something about her that just felt like she couldn't possibly be a double agent, or someone who meant harm to anything.

But he'd heard the conversation himself, through her room door.

If Rachel really was a ghost hunter, he couldn't let her get too close.

* * *

><p><strong>I nearly forgot, I wanted to reply to a review!<strong>

**To Son of Zeus0001:**

**Thank you, firstly, for your enthusiasm over the story! Just to clarify, Maddie and Rachel's mum are JUST FRIENDS. They were best friends long ago, but what with their vastly differing choice in husbands, well, let's just say their disapproval of the other's husband may have caused some tension and stuff. But nope, they're NOT related, and so Rachel and Danny AREN'T related either. **

**Secondly, Danny is just who he is. Danny Fenton/Phantom, the ghost boy and hero of Amity Park. Nothing more, no special connections to the Ancient Greek/Roman world for him. **

**Thirdly, I would just like you to know that yes, I _do _know that Danny isn't a complete moron. But that particular part was from _Rachel's _point of view. And, as can be seen over the course of the TV series, Danny does often show himself as a complete idiot, and after only _one day _in his presence, it can be said that Rachel might be viewing him the same way. (But please also note that Rachel IS friends with Percy, after all. She's probably used to idiotic, black-haired teenage boys who aren't really as idiotic as they seem.)**

**Yupp, okay, that's it. **

**And to Matt: Hmm. Nico making an appearance to Danny? Maybe he'll drop by Amity Park to check on Rachel. **


	4. the guy with the cool ride

**Okay, so this may not be the best chapter around. I was kind of writing it while watching TV with my sister. Yep. Lots of long paragraphs and thinking going on in this chapter. Yup. **

* * *

><p>Danny couldn't help it. The more time he spent with Rachel, the more he liked her.<p>

The one thing about Rachel was that she was so very _real_. She didn't care about fitting in with everyone else, but unlike Sam, she didn't purposely make herself stand out – she just did whatever she wanted to do. She just went around in her ratty shirts and paint-splattered, marker-covered jeans, with her blue plastic hairbrush sticking out of her pocket.

He'd asked her about that hairbrush, one day, when they were in the gym. Rachel had uncovered a painting of someone who was supposed to be Zeus, the most important Greek god or something like that.

She'd collapsed on the ground laughing for fifteen minutes straight before getting Danny to help her lift it up so she could figure out somewhere she could put it up, and he'd noticed the blue plastic hairbrush, where it always was.

"What is it with you and that hairbrush?" he'd asked her.

She'd looked down at the plastic hairbrush, then, as if surprised, and then she'd laughed. "Let's just say it's gone through a lot with me."

"Does it have something to do with that Percy Jackson guy you're always talking about?" Danny had asked, then. Every time he asked about her friends or her family, his was the name that inevitably came up.

Rachel had smiled, then, a faraway smile. "Yeah. It does."

She hadn't offered anything else after that, and Danny hadn't asked.

The ghost attacks had been occurring just as they normally did, though Danny had noticed that the Box Ghost never came out anymore. It was the absence of the most annoying ghost on the planet that made Danny remember just why he should be so suspicious around Rachel; but the more time he spent around her, the easier it was to forget that he was supposed to be suspicious of her, especially when she hadn't actually _done _anything to the ghosts yet.

Every morning she was up early in the kitchen, either hurriedly making her own breakfast or bravely trying one of Maddie's or Jack's breakfasts. (She had a lot of courage, that he had to admit.) He would walk with her to school, and she would always be talking, or asking him endless questions about Amity Park, and Casper High, and his family, and the ghosts.

And then, when they reached Casper High, they would split ways – Rachel to the gym, and Danny to his first class. Rachel, while not in any of the classes, had already gained a reputation in the school by the second day; all were now wary of the crazy redheaded girl who roped in _anyone _who wandered into the gym to help out with the art exhibition.

Dash, of course, had been eager to help. He never seemed to mind that she wasn't impressed with him, or his words, or his popularity status, or his money, or the fact that he was the star of the football team, or anything about him, really, but he simply did whatever she asked him to do, which was usually carrying the heavy stuff around. Because of Dash, Kwan had been roped in as well, and instead of them spending their afternoons with Paulina and Star and the rest of the A-list crowd, they were usually in the gym helping out Rachel.

Danny had been wary, at first. But Rachel had, rather accurately, got Kwan to help him out instead; and Kwan, who really had no issues with the Fenton kid, had gotten along rather well with him.

Even Sam and Tucker had been dragged in, helping out whenever Danny got dragged into help – which really was every day. Often, they covered for him when there was a ghost attack in town, which he was extremely grateful for. Rachel didn't seem the type to miss out on things easily.

But the times that he _was _there, he found himself wanting to spend even more time in the gym. There was something about Rachel, like a magnetic force that he couldn't pull away from. She made him laugh, she made him feel relaxed; he didn't feel like a loser around her, and because she didn't know his secret, he never felt like she had any expectations of him to do something heroic or to take up a responsibility.

Some nights, when he came home, exhausted from fending off Johnny 13 and his Shadow or Skulker or Technus or whoever it was, he would find her in the living room, a sketchbook in her hands, drawing while Maddie and Jack messed around in the lab downstairs. She would be sketching one of the students from school, or something she'd seen around Amity Park. And she would always have a mug of hot chocolate for him, on the kitchen table. She never asked where he went, just passed him the chocolate and _talked _to him.

Even Jazz and Tucker and Sam hadn't done anything like that for him before.

Other nights, he'd sail in through Jazz's room and he'd find her sketching the ghosts she'd seen around the town, or the ones wrecking the school. He'd never seen anyone with her talent before – with a few strokes, she could capture Kitty's likeness exactly, or Ember, or Walker.

The only sketch he'd yet to see was one of himself as Danny Phantom. He supposed that was partly because of his own attempts at avoiding her. She had an artists' eye – if she put down his likeness on a paper, he was worried that she would see just how much Danny Phantom resembled Danny Fenton. So his ghost half kept away, while his human half spent more than three-quarters of the day with the girl.

At times, he would see her stand up to a ghost and yell about him wrecking the exhibition, or the town, or the school – he'd heard her yell in Technus' face, backing him into a corner until he'd slinked away and run straight to Danny, pleading with him to take him back to the Ghost Zone. Even when faced with Skulker, she'd just tilted her head and asked him his name and then scribbled it onto her hand, before running down the corridor away from the ghost hunter.

It had made Danny wonder even more about her and what exactly she was doing.

Tucker, on the other hand, had had little information to pass to Danny about the Nico di Angelo guy. Nothing at all. The only record was of a kid from the 1940s who'd died in some explosion. And while that guy could be a ghost, Danny had never heard of him, and doubted that a kid could hold that much power to send even the Box Ghost running back to the Ghost Zone. And there was also another guy who'd attended school at some place called Westover Hall, but there was nothing to connect him to Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

So they'd given up on that.

Today was Friday, and officially the last day of school until summer was over.

"If you want," Danny heard Dash say, as he walked into the gym with Sam after school – Tucker was already inside, staring at a painting that Danny had seen before, which was supposed to be of the Lady Artemis and her Hunters or something, "I don't mind coming back during the summer to help out."

He was standing across from Rachel, Kwan beside him looking faintly nauseous at the offer that Dash had just made.

Rachel blinked at him. "Really? You'd come back to help?"

"Yeah, sure. If you want."

Rachel smiled at him, then. "Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great."

"So it's a date?" Dash asked, hopefully, almost. Danny blinked, as he stepped closer with Sam, who was trying to control her laughter. He'd never seen Dash like this before. Never.

He ignored the fact that his stomach seemed to drop when Dash had asked that question.

Rachel's face fell. "Um, I don't date."

Dash's face fell as well: "Do you, uh, have a boyfriend back in New York or something?"

Danny thought of the guy Rachel was always talking about. Percy Jackson.

Rachel shook her head: "No, I just don't date." And then she turned to see Danny and Sam, and a relieved expression came over her face: "Hey! You guys made it on time. I'm about to pack up in, like, half an hour."

"So fast?" Danny asked. "That has to be a first. Usually you make us work for hours."

"And half the time, you're not here," said Rachel. Danny winced. Clearly Sam and Tucker hadn't been as good for covering for him as they usually were – or maybe Rachel was just a lot sharper than the majority of people in Amity Park. "It's a Friday! I know the value of a Friday."

True to her word, Rachel was done in half an hour. Dash stayed for the entire duration, and it was as if Danny and Tucker and Sam weren't the people they'd always been to him. He was actually _nice_ to them – when he had to talk to them. Apart from those moments, he usually spent his time hanging around Rachel.

It was so difficult to be suspicious of Rachel, when she was so _real_.

* * *

><p>It wasn't easy to make herself find out Danny's secret, when she was liking the guy more and more every day.<p>

He reminded her so much of Percy it hurt sometimes. It was partly why she talked so much about Percy; because Danny reminded her so much of him.

"You don't ever stop talking, do you?" he'd asked her one day.

She'd blinked at him, and laugh. "No, I don't think I do, actually. My friend once said I asked so many question it felt like I was throwing rocks at him."

And he was interesting.

And he definitely had a huge, important secret.

She could see it on Sam's and Tucker's faces, whenever they tried to cover for him with flimsy excuses. She'd seen through their attempts in seconds.

That Friday, she walked back with Danny. Sam and Tucker had given him a somewhat mysterious look before disappearing off – she assumed it had something to do with his big secret – and Dash had loped off with Kwan.

Dash. Another problem. One which she _would _push aside, until she'd helped Nico out.

"You ever think life would be better without all the ghosts in your town?" Rachel asked him.

Danny blinked at that: "Are you kidding me? Definitely! No more ghosts, no more attacks, no more late nights and having to evade everyone and everything – "

_No more late nights. Evade everyone and everything_.

That didn't sound right, coming from a guy who'd fled the scene at the appearance of the Box Ghost – or who seemed to disappear every time any other ghost came along, really. She wasn't an idiot, she knew that he came back late most nights - heck, she was usually there with a mug of hot chocolate for him; coffee was good, but the guy didn't look like he actually needed caffeine - and that he looked exhausted half the time.

Maybe his secret about ghosts was bigger than she'd thought.

And then, quite suddenly, she caught sight of a red convertible, and a familiar, golden-haired seventeen-year-old boy sitting behind the wheel, staring at her intently.

She swallowed.

"Uh, Danny," she said, cutting in halfway through his sentence: "I gotta go – I gotta go see about something. I'll see you back at the house, okay?" _If you're even there. _

Danny blinked at her. "You sure?"

"Yeah." Rachel was very aware of the red convertible and the golden-haired boy still looking at her over his sunglasses. "Yeah, I'm sure. Go."

She waited until he turned the corner before she jogged to the convertible. The boy had finally slipped off his sunglasses, and he had stepped out of the car, standing across from her, looking at her gravely.

She swallowed again. "Apollo."

* * *

><p>"We need to talk," said Apollo.<p>

"Here's as good a spot as any." Rachel couldn't understand why she felt so nervous. This wasn't the first time Apollo had dropped by for a visit – after the Giant War, he'd dropped by from time to time, to talk to her about the spirit of Delphi and blah, blah, blah.

But there was something ominous in the air today. She knew it. She could feel it.

Maybe it had something to do with Apollo's serious face, as well. She'd never seen him so grave.

"You know that Zeus blames me for the Giant War," he said.

She winced. "Um, yeah. They mentioned that."

He'd never mentioned it, the times he'd come to see her. She'd thought it better not to ask. She _did _have some tact, after all. And besides, as far as she'd gathered, it had something to do with him abruptly allowing her to take her place as Oracle, and for the prophecy she'd issued almost immediately after she'd accepted the spirit of Delphi.

Suddenly there were lines on his face – the lines of an old man, forced to make a terrible decision. Forced to follow orders that he couldn't not follow, but orders that would make him regret his actions for the rest of his life.

Suddenly Rachel felt very, very scared.

"My father has ordered me to – " Apollo swallowed, looking sadder and more serious than Rachel had ever seen " – he's ordered me to – he – Rachel, I'm sorry – I don't have a choice – I'm so, so sorry – "

"Say it," Rachel demanded, suddenly. "Just – just say it. What's the punishment?"

He looked at her, sadly. "I have to take away your position and your right as Oracle."

No.

_No._

It was as if the world was spinning around her – everything was swirling, blurring, a whirl of colours and sounds and smells –

"No," she whispered, and suddenly she was on the ground which was much too close and much too cold and empty and hard and unyielding.

"No."

* * *

><p>Danny was halfway along the street when he thought maybe he should just check on Rachel.<p>

In his ghost form, of course. Definitely not his human form. He could just go invisible and float alongside her.

There had been something _wrong _about her, when she had asked him to head home first. Her eyes had held something that looked a lot like panic and fear and worry; a flash of it, quickly replaced by the usual brightness of her green eyes. He'd shrugged it off - maybe she'd forgotten something back at the gym, and she was worried the school would close up and she wouldn't be able to get it until Monday - but now he hesitated.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought that maybe he really should just go check on her. To check that she was okay.

Plus, it could have something to do with her possible activities as a ghost hunter.

So he went ghost behind a tree and took off into the sky, sailing back onto the street where he'd left her.

Only to see her collapse onto the ground in front of an athletic-looking guy, with what looked a lot like pain and sorrow and just pure _sadness and shock _on her face.

And then what looked like a green mist, thick and smoky, had come out from her, floating up from her into the air, before promptly vanishing. Danny had never seen anything like it before.

And Rachel was shaking, shivering, on the ground, the guy still standing in front of her, unmoving.

Something fisted in Danny's stomach. What had this guy _done _to her?

Danny didn't even think.

He yelled: "HEY!"

* * *

><p><strong>Yup. So. Rachel is no longer the Oracle. Dundundunnnnn. I don't know if that works, exactly, but uh, I thought it did. Heh. Let's just pretend that things work that way in this universe.<strong>

**Besides, as far as I can remember (I lent my BoO to a friend), Zeus really was very pissed at Apollo. After all, he did need someone to blame. And, you know, the Olympian gods being what they are, I figured that Zeus might do something annoying like that, since, like Apollo said (as far as I can recall), that Zeus felt that Apollo'd picked a new Oracle way too quickly. So, yep. **

**Thank you, once again, to Matt, for the review. Heh. I totally get who you mean. Maybe Nico'll drop by the next chapter, or the chapter after. **

**(Reviews would be wonderful. Just saying.) **


	5. danny phantom?

**not very happy with this chapter, but...here you go, i guess? it's so difficult to write Danny oh god and it's so difficult to write Rachel too what was i thinking omg**

**anyway, thanks for the reviews friends haha. also, someone mentioned that i shouldn't make Nico too powerful because he couldn't deal with Minos and Pariah Dark is the king of ghosts. anyway, here's my response, kind of? Nico was still really a young kid when he dealt with Minos, and he's grown up a lot since then. He's the son of Hades - control over all dead stuff, like ghosts, you know, he just has to figure out how, and he has. And for Pariah Dark, well, this is my personal opinion really, but I feel that the title of Ghost King is one that he's just claimed because he's got the power, and he's a complete tyrant, and because he had the crown and the ring. Nico, on the other hand, is, well, I suppose you could call it the 'rightful' Ghost King. So, yeah, he's pretty powerful in this version i guess haha. **

* * *

><p>The golden-haired guy turned around at the sound of Danny's voice, and his eyes widened a fraction as the halfa floated just between the two of them.<p>

Danny held up a glowing green hand, and he was fairly sure his eyes were glowing green as well. "Back off."

The buff guy didn't even flinch. Again, _so weird_. He definitely wasn't from Amity Park, but he looked like he'd seen weirder things than floating white-haired boys with glowing green hands. Instead, he looked from Danny, to Rachel, and back to him again.

"And who are _you_?" he asked, in a tired voice.

"Danny Phantom. Now, what did you do to my friend?"

Too late, Danny realised the slip. Rachel Elizabeth Dare didn't know _this_ Danny. Not personally. The only time Danny Phantom had ever come into contact with her had been when he'd helped her carry around stuff in the gym, after the Box Ghost had messed it up.

She was, however, still slumped over on the ground, her eyes wide and unseeing. Danny didn't know whether to be grateful that she didn't even seem to notice that he was there, or whether to be even more worried than he already was.

Danny was _so _ready to mash this guy into a pulp.

But then the buff guy sighed, and looked at her sadly.

"You're her friend?" he asked Danny.

"Uh, yeah. Hey, don't avoid the question! What did you do to her?"

Almost instinctively, his hands lit up even more. If the guy didn't answer his question, he was so blasting him into the red convertible that stood just behind him. Even if the convertible was a pretty sweet ride.

But this guy had done who-knew-what to Rachel.

"Peace, boy," said the buff guy, which sounded kind of weird, because he had to be one year older than Danny at the most, but the way he said it made it sound as if he were thousands of years old. "If you're her friend, look after her. It wasn't my decision to turn her to _this_." The guy swallowed, and he looked genuinely distressed. "I'm so upset I can't even make up a haiku."

Danny wasn't sure he'd heard right. Rachel was lying on the ground unmoving, and this guy was talking about _haikus_?

The guy seemed to notice Danny's hands glowing even more brightly than before, because he said, hurriedly, "Look, I can't do anything for her. Please, just take care of her."

Danny wanted to pummel the guy into the ground. He really did. All he had to do was just get up a bit more energy and he'd be blasting the guy into the next street.

But he could see sadness in the guy's eyes. This guy, whatever he'd done to Rachel, certainly hadn't wanted to do it.

"Apollo…"

It was Rachel, croaking, her voice hoarse.

Danny didn't think. He dropped down next to her, looking at her worriedly, the green glow fading from his hands and his eyes.

"Hey, Phantom?"

He looked up. The golden-haired guy looked uncomfortable.

"Just – just take care of her. And tell her that she'll always have a place with us."

The guy nodded at him, and before Danny could even blink, he jumped into the red convertible and was around the corner.

* * *

><p>Pain.<p>

That was all Rachel could feel. Horrible, excruciating pain. Gnawing at her, causing her whole body to hurt, to ache. She felt so empty, so hollow, like something had been ripped out of her.

She could still see Apollo's face swimming in her mind, telling her that – telling her that she was no longer the Oracle.

No. _No. _This was wrong, so wrong, on so many levels. She was the Oracle. The spirit of Delphi, the gods, the demigods and Camp Half-Blood and everything that she'd experienced since she met Percy – this was her life, now. It wasn't just a part of her life. It was who she was. Her position and her duty as Oracle, it had made her who she was, who she had become.

Who was she, if she wasn't the Oracle?

She was meant to be the Oracle. She'd known that, since the Titan War. She'd known it as she'd come running into Camp Half-Blood that very first day.

And now – now she _wasn't_.

This had to be some sort of dream. Some sort of terrible, terrible nightmare. And she'd wake up and she'd find that she was still the Oracle, even with the spirit of Delphi closed off to her –

But no. The ground was below her, hard and solid and painfully, horridly _there_.

And the hurt was real.

"Rachel. Rachel, are you okay?"

A voice that sounded so very much like Danny's resounded through her head, echoing and clanging around in her skull.

She curled up on herself, shuddering, shivering. She didn't care anymore. Nothing felt right anymore. Everything was _wrong_. Everything was wrong, and out of place, and she didn't want to be there. She was empty and hollow and –

"Rachel," the voice said again.

She ignored it.

And then, quite suddenly, she felt hands going around her and holding her close – and then she couldn't feel the ground below her anymore.

"AHHHHHH!"

Her eyes shot open and she grasped at the thing closest to her – the person carrying her up.

"Hey, hey! I'm not going to be able to carry you if you do that!"

Rachel was suddenly very aware that the sky seemed very, very close.

And the person who was carrying her was a white-haired boy with glowing green eyes.

And the next thing she realised was that the ground was very far away.

"What in Zeus' name is going on?" she shrieked, and she was suddenly very aware that she'd flung her arms around the nearest object – which was, in fact, a boy about her age with white hair and glowing green eyes, who was carrying her in his arms, high above the streets of Amity Park.

"Well, that's one I've never heard before," said the boy, and Rachel realised that this white-haired boy sounded, and looked, very much like Danny Fenton – but, more importantly, this was Danny Phantom and he was carrying her as he flew into the sky. Immediately a string of words ran through her head: _Nico favour look out ghost paperwork. _"Isn't Zeus that Roman god or something?"

"Greek," Rachel said, automatically, and her arms grabbed even more tightly around Danny Phantom's neck as he flew up higher. This wasn't as bad as being in a helicopter about to crash into a New York, but it came pretty close: "Um, what are you doing, exactly?"

An almost guilty look came over the ghost boy's face.

"You kind of collapsed on the street," he admitted. "I was, uh, flying by when I saw you. And I kind of panicked – "

"Oh, gods, you didn't attack him, did you?" Rachel's face had turned into a look of horror.

"Well, I was tempted to," confessed Danny. "But I didn't. And you seemed really bad, and I didn't want to leave you on the middle of the pavement in Amity Park, so…"

He shrugged, a little awkwardly, as he carried her, and Rachel thought that she hadn't ever been in this kind of situation before.

"Um," she said, awkwardly, "you can find somewhere to – to put me down."

Danny Phantom looked down at her, a worried look in his eyes. _Damn, _he was cute.

And then all at once, she could feel that empty, hollow feeling in her again. The spirit of Delphi wasn't just shut off to her anymore, as it had been since the war against Gaia. It was gone. Completely gone.

She wasn't the Oracle any longer.

And she was never going to be the Oracle again.

She started shivering, then, and curled up on herself – as much as she could while in the air, anyway.

And then, abruptly, she felt him land on a solid ground, gently. When she looked up, she recognised it almost immediately – the alleyway just behind the Nasty Burger.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, as she scrambled out of his arms and onto the ground. He could feel himself flush, faintly, as he thought of how he'd scooped her up and flown her. "You look really bad."

"I'll be fine," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "I just need to – need to get myself back together, that's all."

"Bad-tempered ex-boyfriend?" Danny asked, grinning at her, trying to make light of the situation. Rachel almost always had a smile plastered on her face. To see her looking so broken was – was unnerving, to say the least. He thought of Tucker and Sam, who had already been waiting for him for at least twenty minutes, and pushed the thought aside. They knew he sometimes got caught up in other stuff. It was the result of being a Fenton kid _and _the ghost boy of Amity Park.

Rachel laughed, hoarsely. "Something like that."

"Um, he asked me to tell you something, though."

Her head shot up instantly, her eyes went wide: "What? What did he say?"

Danny swallowed. "He said, tell her that she'll always have a place with us."

For a moment he wondered what that meant. After all, there was definitely something odd about Rachel – and the encounter with the blond guy just proved that. He didn't even know whether she was a ghost hunter, or possibly something even worse.

But that didn't really matter now.

Rachel just shut her eyes, tightly, before opening them and blinking them quickly. Danny thought she looked like she might cry.

"He also started talking about haikus," he said.

The faintest of smiles flickered across her face, before disappearing. "He didn't make you listen to one, did he? They're terrible."

"Hey, you get used to the Box Ghost yelling 'BEWARE' in your ears all day long, you can get accustomed to any kind of horrible sound," Danny grinned. "But, no, he didn't."

A silence. Danny could see that she was trying to pull herself back together.

"Thanks, Danny Phantom," she said, finally. "For, you know, being around, I guess."

"Hey, I've got a job to do, and looking after girls that collapse on the middle of the pavement doesn't seem like such a bad task to add to the list," he told her, and was relieved to see her smile back at him, a smile that didn't leave.

"What, so you do this job just to get girls?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

"Well, it's an added bonus," Danny said. "You know Paulina's locker is full of photos of me?"

"Oh, gods, d'you use your ghost powers to look through the lockers at Casper High when you've got no ghosts to fight?"

"Hey, I've got to find _something _to do with all my free time," he grinned, and relaxed visibly as she laughed. "You sure you're gonna be okay?"

"I'll manage," Rachel smiled at him. "Like I said. Thanks, Danny Phantom."

"Yeah, well, don't mention it," said Danny, beaming at her, and he rose up into the air and turned back one last time, to see a mane of frizzy red hair disappearing around the corner.

* * *

><p>Danny had gone through every minute of the time he'd spent with Rachel to Tucker and Sam, and he could see their brows furrowed in concentration as they tried to make out what this possibly could mean.<p>

"Dude, you don't think she's possessed, or something, do you?" Tucker asked as they made their way along the pavement, all three on the way home after another evening of patrol. Amity Park had been strangely quiet that day, and Danny was definitely relieved. He needed time to think.

Danny shook his head. "I don't think so. I mean, even if she were overshadowed, which explained that green mist that came out of her, nobody would react like that. She looked like she was kind of – kind of broken."

"Broken?" Tucker echoed.

Danny nodded. "Yeah. Like there was something missing inside of her."

"Probably her heart," muttered Sam. "Maybe that guy really was her ex-boyfriend who decided to break up with her."

Danny frowned. "Nobody'd react to a break-up like _that_. I'm telling you, Sam, you didn't see her face – "

"Danny," she interrupted, "I know you have a major hero complex, and you're a great person for that, but it could be possible. You might have just imagined that green mist."

"I didn't imagine it," he insisted, as the dark fell around them, the streetlamps lighting up. "I'm telling you, Sam, there's definitely something about Rachel – "

He broke off, suddenly, as they reached Fenton Works.

There were four boys and a girl, standing at the bottom of the steps leading up to the house. One of the boys was tall and muscular, with black hair; another was smaller, younger and slighter, with a pale face and dark hair as well; the third boy wore a kind of cap over his head and baggy jeans, and the last boy was blond and well-built, with an easy, laidback look. The girl was pretty, with blond curly hair, and she was glaring up at Fenton Works fiercely.

"Dude, are you sure this is it?" the boy in the cap was asking. "I mean, she said she was staying with her mum's friend, wasn't she – "

"Yeah, her mum's totally high society and everything," said the muscular, dark-haired boy. "Her friends would probably all be staying in mansions and stuff – "

"Would you guys trust me?" the youngest boy snapped, his face tired. "She's definitely here – "

Then he noticed Danny, and Sam, and Tucker, who had come to a halt just a short distance away from them. His dark eyes moved from Tucker to Sam to Danny – and when they reached Danny, his eyes widened slightly, before narrowing.

"Can I help you?" Danny asked, almost instinctively sliding into a defensive position – a move that was noted quickly, quietly, by the girl and the muscular boy and the blond guy, who looked remarkably a lot like the guy that Rachel'd been with that day. "You're kind of standing at the entrance to my house."

The muscular, dark-haired boy opened his mouth, but the blond girl beat him to it, stepping in front of him quickly. Almost all at once, Danny felt intimidated by her. She was blond, for sure, but there was a hardness in her face, and her eyes spoke of danger and living on the edge and a certain kind of sadness.

"You must be Danny Fenton, then," she said, and at his surprised face, added, "We're Rachel's friends. We're looking for her."

"And who exactly are you?" Sam asked, from next to Danny, her face a scowl.

The girl raised her eyebrows, as if amused. "My name's Annabeth," she said, as if that explained everything. "Annabeth Chase."

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><p><strong>umm, any comments? <strong>


	6. demigods in amity park

**omg hi guys! thanks for, you know, the reviews and everything. seriously.**

**so i tried working on this chapter. i really did. but still totally not satisfied with this shit!**

**i hope it's not too anti-climatic. **

**merry christmas to everyone, by the way!**

**hope you like it!**

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you guys <em>came<em>!"

Rachel flung her arms around the blond girl first, burying her face into the grey-eyed girl's shoulder. Danny blinked as he took a step backwards, nearly crashing into Sam and Tucker. In less than a minute, the rest of the group swarmed the redhead – the boy with the cap, and the muscular, dark-haired boy, the younger, pale boy and the blond one.

"We heard about what happened," the blonde, Annabeth, said, her voice sounding gentle.

"I'm sorry about my dad," the blond boy offered, scratching the back of his head uncomfortably.

Rachel stepped back from them, managing a smile. Her eyes were red – she'd definitely been crying, and crying a _lot_. "It's not your fault, Will."

Behind Danny, Sam cleared her throat. Loudly.

"Oh!" Rachel unlatched her hands from Annabeth's, and stepped around, giving a sheepish smile to Danny and Sam and Tucker. "Guys, this is Danny, Tucker, and Sam. Guy, these are my friends from back home. Annabeth, Percy, Grover, Will, and Nico."

Danny tensed up at the name _Nico_. This had to be the Nico di Angelo that had gotten the Box Ghost so spooked – how many people could there be with the name Nico? But the boy looked like he was a couple of years younger than all of them, and he looked much too pale and much too skinny; how on earth was he a threat to any of the ghosts?

Well, to be fair, Danny thought to himself, it wasn't like he was especially bulky or muscular, either. And he still kicked ghosts back into the Ghost Zone every day.

And this had to be Percy Jackson and Grover Underwood, the other two people that Rachel talked about non-stop, apart from Annabeth Chase.

"It's great to finally meet you," Danny found himself saying, grinning at Percy and Grover. "Rachel never shuts up about you guys and Annabeth."

Rachel grinned, slightly guiltily. "Not _all _the time."

"Well, most of the other times, you're either getting all dictator-like on us in the gym or Dash is trying to hit on you," Tucker supplied, helpfully.

Rachel rolled her eyes as the Percy guy spun around, almost protectively: "_Who's _hitting on you?"

"Hey, relax, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth's fingers curled around Percy's, and she looked over at Rachel. "Is there somewhere we can talk?"

"Uh, yeah. My room." Rachel glanced over at Danny, mouthing _sorry _before heading up the stairs, gesturing for her friends to follow her.

He shrugged and gave a sheepish smile and wave in response, as she headed up the stairs with her friends.

* * *

><p>"We have to find out what's going on," Danny said, pacing up and down his room. "That has to be that Nico di Angelo guy. Did you see, he kept giving me weird looks! Do you think he knows?"<p>

"Go invisible, man," said Tucker. "Go and listen to them! Sam and I will cover for you if Rachel or someone comes barging on."

Sam nodded her head vigorously. "Look, Danny, if there's something wrong, we definitely need to find out. And besides, you've spent who-knows-how-long evading Valerie, and your parents, and just about every other ghost and ghost hunter." Sam grinned at him. "How bad can a bunch of teens new to Amity Park be?"

* * *

><p>Nico was not particularly close to Rachel. Neither was Will. For sure, they were closer to her than most of the campers were – Nico because, well, he'd always gotten along with Rachel, and Will <em>because <em>of Nico – but Percy and Annabeth and Grover had always been closest to her. Sure, he knew her pretty well, but when compared to Percy and Grover and Annabeth – he would always be one step behind them.

Now he sat on the edge of her bed with Will next to him, as Rachel paced up and down. He could see half-finished works, mostly sketches, all over the room – and there were, he noticed, a great many of Apollo that were hardly finished.

Percy sat fiddling with the hem of his shirt on the floor, Annabeth's grey eyes watching Rachel worriedly as she paced.

"Rachel," Annabeth said, gently.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Rachel stopped pacing, leaned against the wall and managed to force out a smile. "I just – it's hard. It's just so_ hard_. I mean, sure, the spirit of Delphi was closed off, but I was still the Oracle, you know? And now – well – "

Annabeth didn't say anything. She just got up and went over to Rachel, hugging the redhead tightly.

"We would've come earlier," said Percy, from the ground. "But Blackjack wanted donuts."

Rachel chuckled slightly, though there was a catch in her voice. "Blackjack always wants donuts."

"Well, that, and Grover was so agitated that we couldn't find him," said Will. "We found him eating up the cans in the recycling bin."

There was a nervous _bleat _from the satyr. "Hey, I was worried, okay? It was stress eating!"

"You nearly started eating the canoes," said Nico.

"I got worried about Rachel!"

And it was then, among the laughter that escalated, that Nico felt it.

It was not one of the spirits from the Underworld. He could sense that immediately.

But it was _dead_, and at the same time, it wasn't.

"Rachel," he said, suddenly. "I don't want to make things worse, but – about what I asked you to come here for – "

"Right," she said, untangling her arms from Annabeth. "The ghosts and stuff, right?"

"Yeah!" Percy cheered. "Ghosts! Do you have any idea how _cool _that is? Considering they're not those creepy spirits in Asphodel or whatever?"

There was no doubt about it, the undead, cold presence was growing stronger with every moment that passed. It hovered somewhere by Grover, who was clearly doing his best not to start chewing on the furniture in Rachel's room.

"I have a profile of sorts," said Rachel. "In that sketchbook. You know. Their names, and their obsession." She had a shaky smile on her face, but her voice was growing slightly stronger as she talked, beginning to wave her hands about. "Did you know that there's this guy called the Box Ghost? He's a complete idiot. And then there's a ghost of technology, and another of plants, and music, and some ghost who calls himself the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter who has an ego about the size of Olympus, and this ghost couple who keep breaking up and getting back together."

"Yeah," said Nico, distractedly. He could feel Will feel the change in him, the son of Apollo moving to cover his own tanned hand over his pale one. "And, uh – what about that guy? Danny Phantom?"

"The one you said giving your dad loads of paperwork?" Percy wanted to know. Gods, that guy was like a little kid at Christmas.

"Yeah."

The undead presence was becoming more agitated. Nico could feel it.

"He helped me out, earlier today," said Rachel, but Nico was barely paying attention. "After – you know – Apollo. I was starting on a drawing when you guys came – "

_There_.

The flicker of movement.

He flicked his wrists.

The shadows flew up from the corner (thank the gods Grover was standing by the lamp on the desk) and wrestled themselves onto the wrists and ankles of an invisible figure in the corner, who let out a loud "Hey! What the – " –

Almost instantly, every weapon in the room was out and pointing at the still-invisible figure twitching in the corner by Grover, held down by shadows. Grover let out a yelp and stumbled backwards, groping for his pipes, and Annabeth and Percy both had their knife and sword out respectively, Will's hand still clenched around Nico's.

Rachel's eyes were wide, her hands halfway to the table where she'd been about to get the half-done sketch of Danny Phantom. "What the – "

The figure flickered into view.

A white-haired figure with glowing green eyes, dressed in some sort of black hazmat suit with white gloves and boots, a symbol or insignia of some sort on the front of his suit. Shadows were wrapped tightly about the figure's gloves and boots even as he struggled against them.

"Danny Phantom," Nico said, rising to his feet.

The ghost stared at him, hostilely. "Nico di Angelo. Who the hell are you?"

"You know my name."

There was something about this ghost that was – _different_. Nico knew what dead people felt like. He knew what spirits felt like. Hell, he even knew what the ghosts in this town felt like – he'd run into a couple of them before, but they'd always fled before he could get his hands on them.

But this one was different. He was dead, but at the same time, he _wasn't_.

What in the name of Hades - ?

"Well, yeah," said Danny Phantom. "For some reason, the ghosts get freaked out every time someone mentions it." His eyes flicker to Rachel. "Usually, it's just you."

"What the hell are you doing, creeping around this room?" Percy demanded. "Are you some kind of perverted ghost or something, sneaking around Rachel's room invisible? Because, seriously – "

"Wait, what?" Was that Nico's imagination, or was that a _flush _on the ghost boy's face? "No, I'm not a pervert! Seriously, dude, can you lower the sword? It's kind of intimidating."

"That's the point." Annabeth raised her knife a little higher.

The ghost boy swallowed.

And then a grin split his face: "Hey, that's actually a pun – "

"_Enough_!" Nico snapped. "What are you doing here, and what exactly are you?"

"What am _I _doing here? You're the bunch of weird, freaky teens carrying out bronze swords and with weird shadow powers!" Danny Phantom scowled at him, waving his bound wrists for emphasis. "And what do you mean, what am I? I'm a ghost!"

"No," said Nico. "You aren't. Not really."

The white-haired ghost stared at him for a long moment, and Nico could feel his agitation and nervousness increase as he swallowed. "What?"

"Nico," said Rachel, her voice becoming slightly shaky again, and with a pang, Nico remembered just why they had come all the way to Amity Park. For _her_. Not for a bunch of ghosts causing additional paperwork. "He did help me just now. Maybe interrogating him by locking him in place with shadows is not the best idea."

"Maybe," Nico acknowledged. "But he's not a ghost. He's not a human. ANd I want to know why and how, and I am really not in the mood to deal with all that paperwork my dad's decided to thrown to me." He turned a glare on Danny Phantom. "If I release you, would you fly off?"

"Well, yeah," said the ghost boy. "But I gotta admit, you guys have got my curiosity piqued, too." He grinned. "How about a trade?"

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><p><strong>please don't kill me please don't kill me please don't kill me <strong>

**(by the way ideas and suggestions would be fantastic okay just saying)**


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